Auction (Part 2)

Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.

Christian VIII was astonished by the staggering bids he heard; initially, he had only intended to sell these colonies to overcome a fiscal crisis.

After all, these territories far from Denmark were constantly diminishing in value and had long been threatened by the British. Rather than living in constant fear, it was better to sell them off.

However, the British offer was insultingly low, practically a robbery. Yet, if no one else bid, Christian VIII would have had to agree to this losing deal.

Then, the helpful Franz suggested that he could use an open auction to curb the malicious price-suppression tactics of the British.

After careful consideration, Christian VIII felt that since it was the buyers who would be offending the British, the blame would not fall on him, so he began the auction.

Auctioning off colonies was not a common occurrence, so he specifically chose the neutral city of Frankfurt.

Soon, the starting price for Denmark's colonies in India rose from 100,000 Danish Krone to 700,000, with the House of Habsburg naturally being the bidder.

As for the reason, none was needed; after all, for a family capable of colonizing deserts and glaciers, colonizing India was perfectly reasonable.

But Robert Peel did not care about that; he only wanted to ensure the eternal foundation of the British Empire. And Charles Canning, who was present at the auction, was a staunch anti-Austrian who could not allow Austria to gain any advantage.

Consequently, the British bid 1,000,000 Danish Krone. Before Christian VIII on the podium could even get excited, the Austrian side raised the price to 1,500,000.

Charles Canning had no choice but to raise the price to 1,600,000, followed immediately by 1,700,000, 1,800,000, and 1,900,000.

Finally, the price was pushed to 3,000,000 Danish Krone